The Passionate Economist

He was a modern-day Thomas Paine, driven by a strong socialist mission to improve the lives of the poorest. This book is a biography of Brian Abel-Smith. It takes a historical perspective to analyse the development of health and social welfare systems since the 1950s, exposing the critical impact of long-running debates on poverty and state responsibility, especially in Britain. This book offers a comparative study of how developing countries sought better health and social welfare, enabled by the World Health Organisation and other agencies for whom Abel-Smith regularly worked.